page_title: Banksia violacea
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Banksia violacea / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: Banksia violacea young follicles - Wheatebelt
context_page_description: Banksia violacea, commonly known as violet banksia, is a species of shrub or tree in the plant genus Banksia. It generally grows as a small shrub to 1.5 m high with fine narrow leaves, and is best known for its unusually coloured dark purple-violet inflorescences. The colour of the inflorescences, short leaves, and flattened follicles which are sticky when young, help identify this species from others in the field. It is found in low shrubland in southern regions of Western Australia from Esperance in the east to Narrogin in the west, growing exclusively in sandy soils.
  First described in 1927 by the West Australian botanist Charles Gardner, the species was at one stage considered a variety of B. sphaerocarpa. Although there are no recognised subspecies or varieties, both lignotuberous and nonlignotuberous forms exist for Banksia violacea. Wasps, ants and flies have been recorded visiting flower spikes. Banksia violacea is classified as Not Threatened under the Wildlife Conservation Act of Western Australia. Regarded as of little value to floriculture, it is rarely cultivated.
context_section_description: The type specimen of Banksia violacea was collected by the West Australian botanist Charles Gardner on 14 December 1926 in the vicinity of Lake Grace. The following year, he published a description of the species in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia. He placed it in section Oncostylis of Bentham's taxonomic arrangement of Banksia, giving it the specific epithet violacea in reference to the violet flowers. Thus the full name of the species, with author citation, is Banksia violacea C.A.Gardner. The species has been considered a variety of B. sphaerocarpa (Fox Banksia); this view was published by William Blackall in his 1954 How to know Western Australian wildflowers. He considered  B. violacea  to be a variety of B. sphaerocarpa with violet flowers. This description was an invalid publication, however, and a nomen nudum. In 1981 Alex George declared Banksia sphaerocarpa var. violacea Blackall a nomenclatural synonym of B. violacea.
  In George's 1981 arrangement, B. violacea was placed in subgenus Banksia because its inflorescence is a typical Banksia "flower spike"; section Oncostylis because of its hooked styles; and series Abietinae because its inflorescence is roughly spherical. It was placed in taxonomic sequence between B. incana (Hoary Banksia) and B. meisneri (Meissner's Banksia).
  In 1996, Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges published the results of a cladistic analysis of morphological characters of Banksia. They retained George's subgenera and many of his series, but discarded his sections. B. ser. Abietinae was found to be very nearly monophyletic and so it was retained. It further resolved into four subclades, so Thiele and Ladiges split it into four subseries. B. violacea appeared in the last of these:
  This clade became the basis of B. subseries Longistyles, which Thiele defined as containing those taxa with very long and slender styles, smoothly convex perianth limbs without a costal ridge, and thickened margins. In accordance with their cladogram, their arrangement placed B. violacea first in taxonomic sequence, followed by B. laricina (Rose-fruited Banksia). However, Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement was not accepted by George, who, questioning the emphasis on cladistics, rejected most of their changes in his 1999 arrangement, restored B. series Abietinae to his broader 1981 definition, and abandoned all of Thiele and Ladiges' subseries. George commented that the species has no close relatives, being "loosely allied" to B. sphaerocarpa (Fox Banksia) and B. telmatiaea (Swamp Fox Banksia). Despite this, the sequence of the series was altered so that B. violacea fell between B. scabrella (Burma Road Banksia) and B. incana, and its placement in George's arrangement may be summarised as follows:
  Banksia
  B. subg. Banksia
  B. sect. Banksia (9 series, 50 species, 9 subspecies, 3 varieties)
  B. sect. Coccinea (1 species)
  B. sect. Oncostylis
  B. ser. Spicigerae (7 species, 2 subspecies, 4 varieties)
  B. ser. Tricuspidae (1 species)
  B. ser. Dryandroideae (1 species)
  B. ser. Abietinae
  B. sphaerocarpa (3 varieties)
  B. micrantha
  B. grossa
  B. telmatiaea
  B. leptophylla (2 varieties)
  B. lanata
  B. scabrella
  B. violacea
  B. incana
  B. laricina
  B. pulchella
  B. meisneri (2 subspecies)
  B. nutans (2 varieties)
  B. subg. Isostylis (3 species)
  Since 1998, an American botanist, Austin Mast, has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses suggest a phylogeny that is very greatly different from George's arrangement, and somewhat different from Thiele and Ladiges'. With respect to B. violacea, Mast's results agree with its placement near B. laricina and B. incana, placing it in a clade with these two species and B. sphaerocarpa var. dolichostyla (treated at species rank as B. dolichostyla). However, Thiele's B. subseries Longistyles appears to be polyphyletic, as do both definitions of B. ser. Abietinae—that is, none form a natural grouping.
  Early in 2007, Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by merging Dryandra into it, and publ
caption: Young follicles are green, and slightly sticky at this stage.
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